FORBES, the leading US business magazine, has just released a list of the top 19 earners in cryptocurrencies in one of its annual rich lists with Ripple founder Chris Larsen and major investors topping the table with the billions they have made from the crypto boom.

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The prestigious, albeit extremely volatile list includes all the biggest names in the crypto-sphere including investors the Winklevoss twins and the heads of the popular exchanges - Coinbase and Binance.

Forbes admits that the figures are estimates and liable to change on an hourly basis given the volatile nature of the assets. However they say that each entrants’ wealth has been verified, with some providing detailed proof to aid in the investigation.

Elusive bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto did not come forward and is not included in the list. Without any firm data on Mr Nakamoto, Ripple’s co-founder Mr Larsen comes out on top.

Putting his wealth in perspective at its uppermost point when the Ripple XRP coin hit an all-time high of $3.84 earlier this year, the net worth of Mr Larsen’s estimated 5.19 billion XRP, added to his 17 percent stake in the company meant that, for short time at least, he was one of the richest people on the planet with wealth approximate to $59.9 billion on paper.

At the time, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook fame was worth around $55 billion.

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This is an opportunity to be a trillionaire - someone who is positively impacting a trillion living things on this planet.

Brock Pierce, chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation

Ripple is now worth $0.78 and as such Mr Larsen’s estimated wealth has now fallen $59.9 billion to $8 billion, an indicator of cryptocurrency volatility at its most violent.

There are no women in the list and the average age of those on the list at 42, is a long way below the average age of 67 on the Forbes 400 list of wealthy Americans.

Brock Pierce, chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation sees the positive side of these literal new-money million and billionaires.

He said: “This is an opportunity to be a trillionaire - someone who is positively impacting a trillion living things on this planet."

Although the personal wealth these men is falling, none of them will be particularly concerned after many of them enjoyed a 14,409 average percent rise to the coins in their wallets in 2017.

But with 2018 being dominated by regulatory threats from South Korea, electricity use concerns in China, a $500m hack in Japan, a ban on Facebook, the “outright scam” at AriseBank and the price manipulation of tether there are major fears the bubble will burst.